OUA Nordic Championships 2014- The Work Has Been Done

UW Nordic OUA Team 2014 

  

"The work has been done".   For me, this is one of the most motivational and relaxing things that anyone has ever told me on a start line.  Race days can often be stressful and nerve racking, but in the world of endurance sports, race-day performance is ultimately a direct reflection of the hundreds of hours of tough dedication that have gone into the training year.  For me, when someone tells me "the work has been done" I can't help but reminisce of brutally hot summer workouts, rollerskiing in raging wind and rain on early Sunday mornings and into the evenings, seemingly endless hours in the gym doing sets of up pull-ups, squats, bench press, bounding workouts, road trips to Highlands to catch good snow on the weekends, and last but certainly not least,  every weeknight in the winter spent ripping it up in the dark at Bechtel park, in what this year seemed to be weeks of -30.  Of course these are the tough moments, and there are many wonderful moments of training as well.  When you're standing on the start line and all of that goes racing through your mind, there's no way that you can convince yourself that the work hasn't been done.  There's no way that you can convince yourself that you should be worried, or nervous when you realize that all of the tough stuff is over with, that all you have to do is get yourself to that start line with a smile on your face, some fast skis in hand and get out there and do exactly what it is you've been preparing to do all of this time.  

          On the flip side of things, there also comes the part where you have to trust that the combination of the above madness will fit together to form the training plan that will work for you at the right time.  You have to trust that when you start to taper that, again, all of the work has been done and that all you can possibly do is rest and recover, trust that the plan has worked and that your body will peak at the right time. 

Each and every UW nordic athlete worked extremely hard to do exactly just this; got the work done and brought it all to the line for the final university racing event of the year, the OUA 2014 Nordic Ski Championships, held in North Bay, Ont. from Feb. 20th-23rd.

A taste of the weather during the team sprints 

             The championship was a three day event, coined the "Tour de Nipissing" as each of the three races was held at one of three different venues.  Day 1, the 6.5 km. classic "prologue" race, was held at Nipissing University's own cross-country ski trails.  Day 2 was the team sprints which were to be held in downtown North Bay, and Day 3 was a distance freestyle event which was to be held at the North Bay nordic ski club.  At the end of the "tour" points were totaled for an overall individual OUA ranking and overall team rankings.

Colin Elliott pushes through a corner in the classic race 

  Friday awoke to some of the warmest weather we had seen all winter.  The morning hovered around zero degrees and rain, with the afternoon dropping to -2 with snow.  No doubt some of the toughest waxing and skiing conditions that you could ask for.  The men's prologue kicked off the weekend, the Warriors sending out Oliver Conway-White, Colin Elliott and Orion Austrup.  Conway-White, ranking the highest of the UW team on that day, pulled in in 15th place in 22:05.6.  A strong performance from Elliott brought him to 18th place in 22:28.  Austrup followed in 43rd with a time of 25:26.

Alison Stephenson pushes over a hill 

          The women only brought two athletes to the line for the Championships.  Alison Stephenson, having a season's best performance, ranked 17th in 26:36 and Katie Madden was 29th in 28:18 in the 6.5km. classic race.

Oliver Conway-White leads a pack during the team sprint 

         

 The second day of racing was the team sprint event, where two partners alternate laps for 6 laps total of a sprint course.  The course this year being only 900m. was especially a sprint, as opposed to the usual sprint distance of 1.5km.  Semifinals were in the morning, where each team raced in one of two heats with the top five teams in each heat moving onto the finals.  The women's pair of Katie Madden and Alison Stephenson was first off the line for the day, however they were unfortunately not able to advance onto the finals.  They were 13th overall for the day.  The men's pair was Oliver-Conway White and Colin Elliott.  The men's team was also unable to advance to the finals, which also gave them a final ranking of 13th for the day.

Katie Madden gains time over a Nipissing skier in the 10km.

          Sunday's freestyle distance race was done in a pursuit style in which athletes stared based on their ranking from Friday's prologue. This meant that by improving your placement in the field of skiers improved your overall final raking.  Again the women were first off the line, skiing two 5km. laps for a total of 10km.  Katie Madden was able to improver her overall ranking by 8 places, coming in 18th in the freestyle event with a time of 34:07.  Alison Stephenson posted a result of 20th in a time of 34:27 in the freestyle race which gave her a final ranking of 19th.

Orion Austrup during the 10km. freestyle event 

          On the men's side Oliver Conway-White posted the highest place of the weekend for the Warriors in the 15km freestyle event.  He was 12th in a time of 42:15, which gave him an overall, impressive ranking of 12th.  Colin Elliott followed in 22nd place in 43:55 which led to 21st place overall.  Orion Austrup completed his first OUA Championships with a final ranking of 40th by placing 41st in the freestyle race in a time of 51:22.

          Congratulations to all members of the UW nordic ski team for some very strong results at the OUA Championships and for a successful 2013/2014 season! A big thank you to coach Colin Rhodes and Tim Hughes for the wax support over the season. 

Photo Credit to Gord Kerr and Lindsay Sarazin.  Thanks for the awesome photos! (and for standing out in the cold all that time!)

And we get the Warriors bus for the first time ever

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